Campaign Themes and Platform

By Roger J. Evans

Campaign Themes:

"Santa Maria needs to take care of the youth and the elderly of our community. Everything else good will come from doing this."

"The Santa Maria City Council needs to lead as opposed to control."

"Agriculture is a part of the Santa Maria culture. It needs to be preserved. Communication between all parties and good growth planning are key."

"Change in Santa Maria is overdue. The population is different than it was 20 years ago. Agriculture and Technology can co-exist. In fact, they complement each other."

Platform:

Local Education Reform

Education is the number one priority. Santa Maria should strive for "educational excellence." Education covers a broad spectrum, including classroom instruction, youth sports, and extracurricular activities, which motivate and stimulate. The All America City should be focused on education for our children, and adults.

Our children deserve better than we are giving them. The All America City needs to get portable classrooms removed and replaced with new schools. The City Council needs to work closely with the local school districts and the citizenry to make this happen. We need to identify school sites, educate the citizenry on the importance of school bonds and find other sources of revenue. Our children should not have to cross four-lane street to go to school.

The City Council needs to work with non-profit organizations and volunteers to engage energetic citizens to work with our youth. Youth sports is the complement of the classroom for a good all around education. The City needs to provide good sports fields for our youth. Non-profit organizations also provide our youth clubs and other activities to learn new things and become motivated.

Focusing on education will also benefit the emerging technology industry. People with children who think about coming to Santa Maria for jobs look at our schools. Today, Santa Maria schools and our community are not presenting a very positive image for the businesses we want to come to Santa Maria. This must change.

Santa Maria Culture

Santa Maria has an identifty crisis. An All America City, which puts children in temporary housing for classrooms. A rich history and culture which is not exploited. A richly diverse citizenry which is too often looked upon as a negative aspect of our community.

Santa Maria people are generous with their time, as evidenced by many non-profit organizations. Santa Maria people are interested in family and children. We want good education for our children. We are friendly and hardworking. We need leadership.

The culture of Santa Maria is within all of the citizens. By utilizing non-profit organizations and community groups such as the Livable Communities Consensus project, Santa Maria's culture will emerge.

The center of Santa Maria is a traffic intersection, void of culture and artistic style. This must change. The West Side Development Project must be completed for those who have waited so long, and for the entire community. This can be the location of our cultural community.

To develop the West Side and combine it with Town Center East and West, and also with the Senior Center will take imagination and motivation. But it can be done.

I propose working with our state representatives to begin a campaign to move Highway 166 outside of the northern boundaries Santa Maria. This highway needs to be re-routed in order to achieve a successful West Side development. With Highway 166 no longer going through Santa Maria, semi-trucks will disappear, and opportunity will then be upon us. As a city street, I propose then to block off Main Street at Broadway to create an outdoor Santa Maria pedestrian walkway all the way to Blosser Rd. The walkway will be landscaped to appeal to the pedestrian and bicyclist. Shops and small restaurants will line the streets, which are architecturally pleasing, Santa Maria style, and take into account the blockage of our Santa Maria wind. Our senior citizens will be able to easily walk to any of the areas to enjoy the architecture, landscaping and people.

In order to bring the four corners of Broadway and Main Street into a single unit, requires yet still more imagination. How does one bring together Town Center East, Town Center West, the new pedestrian friendly Santa Maria Street project with the Santa Maria Park and the Senior Center. Broadway is still there. The answer is we go over Broadway. We put out our plan for an architectural center of town at Broadway and Main, which includes a restaurant and easy pedestrian travel across Broadway and East Main by a series of escalators. Pedestrians will not see or hear the traffic as they traverse the streets to their destinations. This new centerpiece of Santa Maria will be the most elaborate and elegant structure on the Central Coast, and will surely become the "Gateway to Santa Maria." A fitting flagpole should be atop the structure for all of its citizenry to know where is the center of town, as it was many years ago. Finally, I'm sure the tourists coming down East Main and Broadway will marvel at the structure as they begin their day of exploring the new cultural center of Santa Maria.

Tourism

Tourism must be invented in Santa Maria. The need for tourism is to provide revenue for businesses and the city. Since the City budget is below what it takes to provide good services, then we must compete for tourist dollars. Renovation of the downtown area is one step. Other steps must follow. We must take advantage of our one important resource - Highway 101, which carries hundreds of thousands of travelers past our city. We need them to stop and shop, take a rest, play golf, tour a winery, and visit our museums.

We have resources to develop a tourist program: the new Santa Maria Cultural Center will provide the beginning of a tourist program. Other areas to explore are golfing, wine tasting Santa Maria Style BBQ, and a West Coast Space and Technology Museum. The Space and Technology Museum is a long term project which can generate significant revenue for the City. It will cover agriculture technology and space travel with a focus on education and entertainment.

Who will build such a project? Where will the money come from? Investors who believe in the success of the plan will provide the initial influx of capital. I suggest the pedestrian transit and restaurant over Broadway and Main Street could be completely built by a local private investment. The Space and Technology Museum will require more creative financing. Our model for this enterprise is in Florida. And it is doing very well. As the Gateway to US Spaceport West, Santa Maria has a tremendous opportunity to generate revenue for our community.

We can define our issues and worry about the problems, or we can use our imagination and talents to challenge our problems, and win for our children, for our elderly citizens and for all of us. The community can do these things. The City Council must provide the leadership.

There are other issues facing the city. But the three issues I chose to work - education, Santa Maria cultural restoration and tourism - will help solve many of the other problems. The key is citizen involvement and open communications.

As Santa Maria becomes a stronger financial tourist base, the goal of achieving sovereignty from Santa Barbara County is more likely achievable.

Positions:

The City Council should not have approved the change in duties for the City Clerk. This is an elected position. In 1999, the local citizenry said "NO" to changing the City Clerk to an appointed position. What the City Council did was wrong. I will seek to reverse this decision.

The City Council should never loan money. The Council should only grant money to organizations for the purpose of benefiting the community. It is not for the City Council to use public funds to support private enterprise. I disagree with the City Council's actions on this issue. I do not believe this loan will save the airline. The airline will survive, and thrive, if there are people who want to come to Santa Maria and for people in the area who want to travel. The City Council should work on the reasons why people and businesses would want to come to Santa Maria. The Council needs to work closely with the Chamber of Commerce and the Economic Development Association to develop a business atmosphere in Santa Maria and a robust tourism program.